Thursday, April 19, 2012

Telling it Straight

Hey everyone,

Super serious post time again.

I realize that this one is going to step on some toes. Well, a lot of toes.
It'll probably make a lot of family members, friends in my hometown, and even quite a few passerby who happen to find their way to this page angry at me.

I assure you, this is not my intention, not in the slightest, but I feel like what I'm saying needs to be said, because there are some people I know (and some who don't) who have to know that there's support for them, someone who really cares.

This post is about Gay rights, and the reasoning for my position on them.

I was raised Roman Catholic all the way until about the middle of high school. My dad is a Methodist who doesn't ever go to church, and my mom is a practicing Catholic. I stopped going to church around my Junior year because there were a lot of things that I disagreed with, and found my own version of religion after that. For those of you who are interested in that, it'll be in the next post.

I am very FOR Gay rights, folks.

I'm sorry if this offends you, especially my family members who I know will wholeheartedly disapprove of this proclamation, but I feel that I'd rather have your disapproval than take away the chance of some person who needs these words to read what I have to say. In the age of the Facebook "share" button and lightning-speed communication, I realize that my words could change someone's life for the better.

Gay rights is the main reason I stopped going to church. There are a few other, more insignificant reasons, but without the whole gay rights disagreement, I'd probably still be a practicing Catholic because they aren't near enough to "quit" a religion I'd been raised in my whole life. During high school, when I met more gay people and ended up befriending quite a few of them through me being in Speech team/Music/Theatre (my family jokes that I'm friends with over half of the gay men in Nebraska), I decided that I couldn't go to a church and practice a belief system where I so strongly disagree with one of tenets that is so important to so many people.

I believe that homosexuality is NOT a sin, that Gays should have the right to be married and have children just like the rest of us, and that God loves everyone.

For those of you who truly think that "God Hates Fags" (Westboro followers and your like, I'm preaching to you here), did you hear that? GOD LOVES EVERYONE.

Does this really need to be explained? Everyone means EVERYONE. All the time. Love isn't just sometimes, folks, and everyone doesn't have an asterisk and a warning in fine print saying "Some restrictions apply." It's an unconditional, unbreakable contract that we have with the big guy upstairs, and it goes for all of us. Period.

Being Gay or Lesbian or Bisexual or a Transgender is NOT a choice. They're starting to get scientific proof in that direction.

The whole reason I'm even writing about this at all is because of a close friend of mine. You know who you are, and this is for you.

I have a very close friend who told me once that he wanted to kill himself for being gay and feeling the way he felt, because he knew his parents would never approve, and maybe even disown him. I'm one of the only people who knows his secret, but he agreed to let me use his words as long as I didn't use his name.

He told me that there was no reason he would ever choose to be in the one group of American citizens that didn't have all their rights, and that he would never wish this on anyone. Ever. He told me that being gay was the worst thing that had ever happened to him, and he wishes every day that he could change this part of himself.

Why should he have to feel that way? Why should anybody have to feel that way? To feel like they have to keep such a large part of their identity secret? That if they love someone, their love is somehow not as valid as mine, just because I'm straight?

That is wrong to me. So wrong. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever known, and if this is a universe where someone's love truly doesn't mean as much as mine, that's just horribly twisted.

I just want to say I'm sorry to all of the Gays who have ever been discriminated against or treated badly just because you decided to show people who you really are, and take the risk of letting people know what kind of person you're looking for. I want to let you know that there are a lot less bigoted, small-minded people out there than you think, and a lot of us feel that what you're going through just to have the basic human emotion of love validated in the eyes of the government and of others is ridiculous.

I want to say sorry to all the Gays who feel like they can't let anybody know who they really are because they feel unsafe or that no one will love them if they do so.

I want to say sorry to all the Gays who read this post because I feel like I can't ever apologize enough to you for what you're going through, and because I can't relate. I'm so sorry that these are battles that will sometimes have to be fought on your own. I'm so sorry that I can't give each and every one of you a hug and tell you that you're beautiful for who you are, and that it doesn't matter one little bit who you love.

I feel like the war against discrimination is just getting too long. It needs to end. People need to learn how to love each other, and be ok with other peoples' life choices. I feel that if you disagree with Gays getting married, fine, but don't try to take away their rights because this is supposed to be a non-secular government. We did it to women and minorities, and now we've found another group that people dislike because they're "different." This is really just ludicrous to me, especially since this is supposed to be the land of the free.

I'm sorry to everyone I've offended, but this message is just so much more important to me than peoples' opinions of me, and I won't take it back.

I feel that this song, "Hold on to What You Believe" by Mumford & Sons says it a lot better than I can. It's much more eloquent, and the words and music are just beautiful.